


Art: You Be the Prom Queen, I'll Be the Malcontent

by BflyW



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Art, Digital Art, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 15:49:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4106416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BflyW/pseuds/BflyW
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>art for You Be the Prom Queen, I'll Be the Malcontent</p>
            </blockquote>





	Art: You Be the Prom Queen, I'll Be the Malcontent

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| [](http://longsufferingly.livejournal.com/153587.html) | [](http://longsufferingly.livejournal.com/153587.html)  
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**I've had the pleassure of making art for**[](http://poor-choices.livejournal.com/profile)[ **poor_choices**](http://poor-choices.livejournal.com/)  story _[You be the prom queen, I'll be the malcontent](http://longsufferingly.livejournal.com/153587.html)_.  
  
|  |  Apparently, I can't stop thinking like a webdesigner. When I make art for a bigbang story, I automatically think that I shall make art to _present the story to the audience_. It's the wrapping of the story, so to speak. So if I was to make art for a book, it would have been the book cover, if it was for a movie, it would have been the movie poster and the DVD cover etc. But since this media is internet, my art will be to present the story on the web - hence, the art basically is webdesign.  
  
The way I think,  the masterpost is kind of like a website for the product (in this case the story). That's where we present the complete end result of the challenge - both from the author and the artist. Everything else (the story chapters and the 'behind the art' post) are simply sub-pages to that first masterpost. So when I make art, I try to make every entry to look like it belongs under that first masterpost - like it is all part of the same large presentation.  
  
I know a lot of writers doesn't expect, or maybe want this, when they are waiting eagerly (and a bit anxious) for an artist to claim their story. So I am beyond happy that [](http://poor-choices.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://poor-choices.livejournal.com/)**poor_choices**   has let me get full control, and allowed me to write all the codes for her fic posts. She made this artist very happy! This would not have been possible with an author saying "no, I want to do the formatting of the story myself," since formatting is part of the design, and for me to be able to make a complete design - I need to be able to control the formating as well.  
  
Thinking like this, I end up with these pieces of art:  
  
  
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**A main header for the masterpost.**  
  


  
I tried to focus mainly on Jared as the main feature, and Jensen in the background, as it is mostly a Jared-centered fic. I wanted him to hold a cup of coffee, since the coffee is somewhat central to how they come to meet... At some point in the editing, the lable of that coffee cup ended up pale orange, and I decided to play on that, and used that as a set point for all other colors, and also making the coffee cup an element that would be present in all pictutres.  


  
  
  
**Smaller headers for each sub-post.**

  
  


  


  
  
  
  
I wanted each of the chapter dividers to be full headers, and I wanted them to have the same concept as the main header - with one subject in the front, and a scew picture in the background. I have also used the same vibrance, brightness and saturation settings to make all pictures have the same feel. If you notice, I also havethe coffee cup, as I mentioned above, to be part of every header.  
  
I don't like when the pictures are just fading out to the background, and I don't like when they are completely boxed in. It's a matter of personal taste. So I've done like I often do - I kind of made a box, and I let the picture break the border of that box, and then I let another element (the chapter title) cut of that picture again to make a clean cut to where the picture actually ends and the real text start.  
  
And as always when I make webdesign - I wanted the text and the header to have the same width. Which means that the width of the text area will be fixed to 700px. This is so that even those with small screens (800 px) in width shall be able to read it, and also, because longer text lines makes it harder to read (it's more difficult for the eye to find the start of the new line when the lines are too long).  
  
For the web-headers I have let the menu be part of the art, and I have used the same menu (just in different colors - where I have taken color from the text) at the bottom of every chapter.  
  
I am totally aware that I used the wrong dog in the Epilogue banner. I originally had 3 banners, and had to make one extra. I added the dog, I was in a rush, and I didn't check the story. I was just so sure that it was harley in the story - but of course it was not! This was just a stupid mistake by me, but by the time I discovered it, I had already sent everything to the author, and I didn't want to make any more trouble for her. I should have checked the story again - bad on my part not doing that! *hides in shame* I couldn't just upload new images with the same names either - because they were already in the PDFs and Mobis etc. 

  
  
**Making sure that it looks the same in all media**  
  


  
Since not all of you read it on web, I also took it upon me to make sure it looked the same even if you print out a PDF or read it on a ebook reader.  
  
Of course, in pdf and ebooks you won't have any use of the menu, so I have removed the menu text in the headers I have used here.  
  
Also - in the PDF I decied to let the images fade a little bit. The edges on the images were a bit hard on the paper, and the soft texture of the paper makes this fading look better than it does on screen. So I decided to make the PDF best looking for print (and not reading on screen). This is of course only how the art will be displayed and has no consequenses for the actual text, which is what is most important.  
  
I have kept the non-faded art for ebook-readers though.  
  
I have to admit - I can only test the file on Kindle - so if it doesn't work proparly on other ebook readers, please tell me. There has been a lot of testing and failing as to what makes the best Kindle-version.  
  
I ended up saving the doc file (including art) as a filtered html - and then opening this file in mobipocket creator, to make a prc file there. Calibre didn't render the text/images as I wanted, and converting it from PDF in mobipocket creator converted the images to bitpoint images instead of jpgs, which made the art look different from what I wanted. I cannot believe how much time I have spent testing out how to make the best ebook file... and then I managed to upload the wrong file (where one of the headers were wrong). lol  
  
As I said, I decided to make the ebook file a prc file - basically because mobipocket creator makes prc files. But I read up on it to make sure that this was a good choice, and this is what I found:   
  
MOBI is the format used by the MobiPocket Reader (owned by Amazon). It may have a .mobi extension or it may have a .prc extension.  The .prc extension is used because the PalmOS doesn't support any file extensions except .prc or .pdb.  

  
Kindle (AZW) has the same format as MOBI (and prc) and Kindle will read prc (and mobi) without a problem.   
  
This means of course that I haven't made an epub for those who need that. I am not sure who needs an epub file, and I don't know how to make them. I hope however that whoever needs it are able to make one from either prc or pdf. The file is DRM free, so it sould be no problem converting it  
  
  

**other downloads**  


I have also made wallpaper of the main header. [Wallpapers and fic can be found in the masterpost.](http://longsufferingly.livejournal.com/153587.html)


End file.
